Smart water flooding through tailoring of injection water salinity and ionic composition has been used to improve oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs. “Smart water” generally refers to water used for a water flooding process in which the ion composition of the water has been modified to improve wetting properties of the oil reservoir and enhance fluid flow and oil recovery in a porous medium during production. Surface and intermolecular forces, thin-film dynamics, and capillary and adhesion forces at rock-fluid interfaces impact crude oil liberation from pores. Stability and rigidity of oil-water interfaces influence the destabilization of interfacial films to promote coalescence between released oil droplets and contribute to recovery. As a result, oil recovery in smart water flooding is due at least in part to the combined effect of favorable interactions occurring at oil-brine interfaces and oil-brine-rock interfaces in formations.